Since late 2007, many countries including Korea have had difficulty in the financial crisis originated from the United States. The financial crisis resulted from the drawbacks of non-bank holding companies so-called non-bank financial groups. Because of that, several major non-bank holding companies went bankrupt. On the other hand, the Korean non-bank holding companies including other financial companies are about to take an advantage to take effectively part in the huge financial market because several financial groups went bankrupt. In this sense, the non-bank holding company system under the Korean Financial Holding Company Act (hereinafter KFHCA) needs to be examined. Through the review of the non-bank holding company system under the KFHCA, the KFHCA has to lay the updated legal foundation for the profits of the Korean non-bank holding companies. For this, the author reviews the non-bank holding company system under the KFHCA focused on the legal system of the United States and concludes as:
First, both countries allowed three kinds of financial holding company, such as bank holding company, insurance holding company and financial investment holding company (so-called investment bank holding company in the United States) officially and clearly.
Secondly, however, the regulation over these non-bank holding companies differs from two kinds of the non-bank holding company in the United States while the only one regulation is applicable to the whole financial holding company including the non-bank holding company under the KFHCA.
Thirdly, the regulatory authority is different from two kinds of the non-bank holding company under the legal system of the United States. But single regulatory authority controls the whole financial holding company including the non-bank holding company under the KFHCA.
Forth, even though these two countries adopted the source of strength doctrine (hereinafter SSD), the cross-guarantee provisions (hereinafter CGP) were adopted in the United States but Korea. For the synergy effect of the financial holding company system, the CGP needs to be adopted in the KFHCA in the near future.
Finally, because the piece concentrated on the legal system of the United States, the examination consolidated by means of including the European Union (hereinafter EU) is expected to be followed. Moreover, the key lesson for Korea resulted from the following consolidated review on the regulation over the non-bank holding company system of the United States and the EU must be the regulation interlocked with the regulatory levels of these two countries against their non-bank holding companies.